Lines out the door, 17-hour waits: Alberta Children's Hospital crushed by respiratory infections
Staff at Alberta Children’s Hospital say even seriously sick kids are waiting up to four hours to be triaged, with a packed emergency department and lineups sometimes stretching out the door.
According to staff, at one point on Sunday, 133 patients were waiting to be seen in the emergency department.
Two medical staff members at the hospital have reached out to CTV News, calling the conditions unsafe.
The crush is being driven by a surge in respiratory illnesses, including influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
Other jurisdictions around the world are seeing a similar trend: surging flu-like illnesses hitting unusually early.
"If we're going to see a big rush of this sort of thing, we see it later in the year, but seeing it really (in the) middle of November is really early for this sort of thing," said Dr. Raj Bhardwaj, a physician and urgent care doctor in Calgary.
"We still have a few difficult months to get through respiratory virus season,” said Premier Danielle Smith on Monday.
She says hospital wait times are "unacceptable," and that the current waves of illness and crisis in care are caused by two things.
The first, she says, is a result of pandemic restrictions.
"I think what we're experiencing is because we had such draconian lockdowns over the last three years," Smith said.
"There's just a large number of kids who didn't get that exposure. And so now we have a surge in those cases."
The reality, says Bhardwaj, is more complicated and not yet fully understood.
"'Immunity debt' as some people are calling it has very little – if any – scientific evidence for it," he said.
"It's a complicated problem. And complex systems – complex problems – usually have more than one cause.
"How your immune system works is that if you get exposed to something years later, it still has a memory of how to fight that and it will go ahead and fight that."
The premier also blames conditions in the province's children's hospitals on management.
"We still have not seen an increase in surge capacity at our hospitals. That's a failure of Alberta Health Services management,” the premier said.
Facing similar pressures, Ontario is now recommending – though not mandating – a return to widespread masking in public spaces.
Asked repeatedly Monday about a masking recommendation, Smith would only say this:
"Anyone who feels comfortable to wear a mask should wear a mask. That should be a personal choice."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.